JCB has marked its 70th anniversary by revealing a limited-edition version of the 3CX backhoe loader that comes complete with its own in-cab coffee machine.
The British machinery giant plans to build 70 of the “platinum”-edition machines, which go into production next month, the UK firm said. A company spokesman told staging.bigprojectme.com/ that the machines would be available in the Middle East.
They come complete with red buckets, a full white cab and red wheels instead of the customary black-and-yellow finish. Since JCB’s first backhoe was manufactured in 1953, the company has produced more than 600,000 of the machines, and now sells them in 120 countries.
IN PICTURES: Britain’s JCB marks 70 years in business
Employees were given an extra day’s holiday on October 23, the date in 1945 on which the late Joseph Cyril Bamford founded the company, which then made trailers from wartime scrap.
“Seventy years is a long time, but the past is the past and while we are proud of it, our engineers are really only interested in the future and the products of tomorrow,” said Lord Bamford, the company’s chairman, who was born on the same day as his father founded JCB.
“You cannot rest on your laurels in business; you have to be thinking of tomorrow, the changing world markets and the products our customers need. That is what makes me and all our people tick,” he added.
“My first memory of JCB really was my father. He was an engineering genius, there was no doubt about that and he was always dreaming of things, and dreaming of better ways of doing things. The backhoe loader my father invented was a godsend and started a mini revolution in construction machinery. Today the backhoe is one of more than 300 products we produce and sell globally.”
JCB today has 22 factories, 11 in the UK and others in India, the USA, Brazil and China employing more than 12,000 people.
It emerged last month however that up to 400 of its UK jobs are at risk, after a slump in demand in Russia and some other markets.
